"Flawless": The NASA plane lands on a dangerous voyage on Mars

NASA officials Jim Bridenstine, Michael Watkins, Tom Hoffman, Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh, and Elizabeth Barrett are making statements from the left from a photograph taken by Mars' InSight Lander at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, California, United States Less

From left, NASA representatives Jim Bridenstine, Michael Watkins, Tom Hoffman, Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh, and Elizabeth Barrett are taking a photo taken of the InSight Lander from the InSight Jet has sent to Mars … more

From left, NASA representatives Jim Bridenstine, Michael Watkins, Tom Hoffman, Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh, and Elizabeth Barrett make statements under a photograph taken by InSight Lander from the InSight jet on NASA Jet … more

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP

"Flawless": NASA ships land on dangerous voyage on Mars

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – A NASA probe to drill into the interior of Mars after a dangerous burglary Rejoicing among scientists who had waited in an insane tension for a confirmation of 100 million kilometers.

Air traffic controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, jumped and screamed from their chairs screaming as they learned that InSight had arrived on Mars, the cemetery for a variety of past missions.

"Touchdown confirmed!" An air traffic controller called shortly before 15 o'clock. EST immediately eliminated the fear that had seized the control room when the spacecraft made its six-minute descent.

Because of the distance between Earth and Mars, it took eight minutes for the confirmation to be transmitted by a pair of tiny satellites. InSight had left the six-month, 482 million-kilometer journey behind.

The two satellites not only sent the good news in near real time, they also sent the first snapshot of InSight back to Mars just 4½ minutes after landing.

The picture was speckled with dirt because the dust cap was still on the lander's camera, but the space around the spaceship looked smooth and sandy, and only a considerable stone was visible – pretty much what the scientists were had hoped for. Better photos are expected in the coming days after the dust covers have been removed.

It was the eighth successful landing of NASA – indeed that of humanity – since the Viking probes in 1976 on Mars and the first in six years. NASA's Curiosity Rover, which arrived on Mars in 2012, is still on Mars.

"Flawless," said JPL chief engineer Rob Manning. "This is what we really hoped and imagined in our mind's eye," he added. "Sometimes things are going in your favor."

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, head of the space agency's first Mars landing, said, "What an amazing day for our country."

InSight, a billion dollars An international project involves a German mechanical mole that stretches 5 meters (5 meters) to measure the internal heat of Mars. The lander also has a French seismometer to measure earthquakes, provided they are present at our smaller, geologically quieter neighbor. Another experiment calculates the shaking of Mars to reveal the composition of the core of the planet.

"In the coming months and years, even history books on the interior of Mars will be rewritten," said JPL director Michael Watkins.

Seven hours after touchdown, NASA reported that InSight's vital solar panels had opened and charged their batteries.

In the next 24-hour "Sols" or Mars days, 39 ½ minutes, air traffic controllers will also assess the health of all InSight systems -important robotic arm and its scientific instruments.

Many Mars-based spacecraft launched by the US, Russia, and other countries have been lost or destroyed over the years, with a pass rate of only 40 percent, excluding InSight.

] This time, NASA chose its old, straightforward approach. She used a parachute and braked engines to reach the speed of 19,800 km / h (19,800 km / h) in InSight as they broke through the Martian atmosphere, about 114 km to 8 km / h at touchdown. The danger was that the spacecraft could burn in the atmosphere or jump off.

The three-legged InSight settled on the western side of Elysium Planitia, the plane NASA was aiming for. Project manager Tom Hoffman said the spacecraft had landed near the porthole, but NASA had not yet had the final calculations.

He said that in the first photo, it's hard to tell if there are any slopes nearby, but apparently he had the flat, smooth "parking lot" he hoped for.

US museums, planetariums, and libraries held sightseeing parties to watch the events at JPL. The coverage of the NASA television program was also shown on the big screen of Times Square in New York, where the crowds in the rain crowed under umbrellas.

The 800-pound (360 kilogram) InSight Station is stationary and will be deployed at the same location for the next station two years, the duration of a Martian year. Building and fine-tuning the instruments will take months, and senior researcher Bruce Banerdt said he would not expect solid data before the end of next spring.

"It's going to be great, I can not wait until you see Marsquakes," Hoffman said.

The well-preserved interior of Mars provides a snapshot of what the Earth looked like 4.5 billion years ago While the earth is seismically active, Mars decides to rest on his laurels, he said.

Through exploration and mapping of the interior of Mars, scientists hope to learn why the rocky planets in our solar system do so

There are no life detectors aboard InSight, and NASA's next mission, the Mars 2020 Rover, will search for boulders that might contain evidence of an old life.

19659012] The question of whether life ever existed in the wet, watery past of Mars drives NASA back from the fourth to the fourth rock Sun.

___ [19659012] This story has been corrected to show that the confirmation was made before 15.00 and not after 1955.

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For the complete coverage of Mars' landing through Mars: https://apnews.com/ MarsLanding

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